The artistic directors of Oriente Occidente, Paolo Manfrini and Lanfranco Cis, aim to contribute to strengthening the 'Italian dance system' by encouraging the productive and distributive capacity of selected national artists. Talented choreographers are offered a two-year journey of shared objectives. By associating with Irene Russolillo, Salvo Lombardo, and Davide Valrosso (whose debut is scheduled for the 2018 edition), Oriente Occidente embarks on a path of production and support for these young artists, guaranteeing them both the presentation of their works within the festival and the international launch of their productions.
A performer of undeniable stage presence, with a powerful ability to blend body, voice, and words in a striking way, Irene Russolillo returns to the festival as an "associate artist" after the debut of A Loan, a solo she created on Shakespeare’s sonnets, presented at Oriente Occidente in 2015. Having made a name for herself with critics and audiences through the solo Strascichi (winner of the Outlet Prize by Electa Creative Arts and Visionari Kilowatt Festival Selection in 2014), she also won the Special Prize at Equilibrio Roma in 2014, directed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, as the best performer.
This brought her into contact with the Argentine choreographer of Les Ballets C. de la B., Lisi Estaras, who created The Speech with and for her, a solo reflecting on how humans constantly seek to fill their empty spaces. It’s a dialogue between impulses and manifestations, developed through an extraordinary ‘muscular’ thought process, which Russolillo interprets with great conviction.
As a choreographer, Russolillo is now working on a new project, Wave (Onda), for which Oriente Occidente, as producer, is presenting the result of the first phase of work (or first study), in anticipation of next year’s debut. For the first time in her career, Russolillo moves away from the solo dimension in Wave, involving other performers and directing at them the thematic questions she has developed for herself over the years. She remains faithful to her exploration of danced material tied to voice, speech, and the interaction of different artistic worlds to create unusual energetic and emotional flows. Starting from a reflection on proximity and cohabitation, sometimes forced yet necessary, the new project outlines a scene’s space-time where spectators, immersed in the performance rather than positioned in front of it, will be stimulated by new perspectives, new touches, and new vital impulses.
